Back to Armenia #11

Artur, Carman, and Tatev

In spite of being in a country that doesn’t celebrate Halloween, we managed to do a little on our own. We enjoyed a family home evening with the Pincocks, Artur, Lusine, Tatev and Carman. We introduced the concept of family home evening to Tatev and Carman who are not members of the church. Sister Pincock talked about Halloween and some of the things that are done in America to celebrate. We did a fun activity in trying to create our own “haunted houses”.

Artur, Carmen, Tatev and Lusine

This was also the week for the Young Single Adults to have their Halloween party, complete with decorations, costumes (at least those brave enough to do it), pumpkin carving, games (they love to play, but sometimes getting them ready and understanding what you want them to do continues to be a challenge), food (sandwiches and salad and cakes) and dancing. Disaster was averted early on when we went to pick up the bread and were told, “No, that was supposed to be tomorrow.” So much for communication.  Our taxi driver stopped at a shuka (small market/store) on the way to the party and we picked up 20 breads for sandwiches (in Armenia it’s called sandwichie hots, sort of Arm/English). Elder Peterson was able to order another 30 from the Georgian bakery right across the street from the church and we were able to put the sandwiches together and feed the masses on time. We still need to get more of them on the dance floor and hopefully when dancing classes start that will help.

Included in the activities was a visit by Brother Henry Kosak from Russia and Brother Hall from Salt Lake, our “bosses” with CES. We enjoyed the fireside and it was a calming conclusion to our activity. It was fun, but cleanup took a looong time as they had scattered confetti all about the room and the poor vacuum kept getting plugged up and one vacuum quit altogether. I think confetti needs to be banned. We are learning as we go. We really appreciate the efforts of the Institute Council and their friends who do so much of the planning and putting on of these activities.

We had a great experience hosting Family Home Evening for the missionaries and a couple of their investigators, Hasmik and her daughter. It is great to be involved with the young missionaries, too. They are so knowledgeable and have such a great spirit; it infuses us with new energy and commitment.

We had a fun class with our Young Adults on Saturday. It’s always nice to be with them…now if we could just convince them to date and marry…then we would count ourselves as effective leaders. They enjoyed the treats. Erik called them American cookies (they were chocolate chip, so maybe so).

I had to speak on Sunday about judging others. For me, it’s always a challenge to speak but I do get a lot of ideas about the subjects when I’m preparing, so now I have a couple of talks I could give (just don’t pass that along…because it’s not my favorite thing).

We discovered early Monday, that the Institute had been broken into and they were in the process of hauling sound equipment, computers, etc. when they were caught by the police. It’s interesting that one of the things they took from one of the offices was Artur’s haunted house. Those Armenians do have a penchant for sweets. Samvel said it was really funny to go into the police station and see the haunted house sitting on the desk as evidence of the burglary.

It’s been fun this week to reconnect with Elder and Sister Blotter. They have come to finish up or help with some water projects and will be here a week. They even brought us some “goodies” so we can still make fudge for Christmas.

We continue to learn and be amazed at all that goes on in Armenia. We love the opportunity to serve and hope the people are growing in the gospel and learning better how to serve one another. We’re looking forward to a night out with the Seniors as we attend the opera house and a production by Armenian dancers.